Everyone benefits if partygoers know what's in their drugs, so why make pill test pioneers go crowd funding?

The number of deaths from MDMA has been rising steadily, but there is no simple way to prevent people taking a drug for fun

Surely it’s time for government, with hefty contributions from event organisers and club owners, to fund pill testing everywhere young people gather – in city centres, clubs and at festivals (Getty)

We expect our drink, food and cigarettes to be labelled with every single ingredient – but what about party drugs?

An ecstasy pill with a smiley face or the imprint of a rocket on it could contain anything from poison to toothpaste, and yet thousands of people took them over the new year celebrations in the hope of a bit of fun and escapism. I did it myself, a few years ago.

Party drugs are not going away, but any mention of recreational drugs never brings out the best in politicians.

They generally trot out the following: “No illegal drug can be assumed to be safe and there is no safe way to take them.”

Unfortunately, that position hardly reflects the reality of the world we live in.

The number of deaths linked to MDMA in England and Wales has been rising steadily, from eight in 2010 to 63 in 2016. Not only are many ecstasy pills up to five times stronger than they were in the clubbing years of the 80’s, they are frequently cut with other stuff which can keep users awake for hours and have serious side effects.

Every festival season, young people die as a result of taking these drugs – two at Portsmouth in 2018, one at Leeds in 2016 and Reading in 2017. And it’s not just the UK. In Australia, five people have died as a result of party drugs at music festivals in New South Wales alone since September.

There is no simple way to prevent people taking a drug for fun. The only possible way forward to is educate and inform them about what they ingest, and then let them decide.

In Australia, a huge debate is raging about whether to allow authorised pill testing at music events. Users would take their drugs to a tent for analysis (unhampered by the police). They would have to agree to talk to medical support about the risks of what they are doing. After 30 minutes they would receive the results of the test, and have the option of leaving with them, or throwing them away.

Pill testing was carried out for the first time at the Groovin the Moo Festival in Canberra last April. Only 42 out of 70 users had actually bought pills containing MDMA (ecstasy), the rest were fillers and harmless rubbish, although one contained a highly dangerous stimulant.

Now, Australian politicians are at loggerheads about whether to make pill testing available at all festivals. They don’t want to condone drug taking, but they can’t see how else to prevent harm and even death among the young, given the huge popularity of ecstasy.

Critics say testing doesn’t stop people overdosing and it doesn’t prevent bad reactions which could occur because of an individual’s medical history. Testing doesn’t prevent the undeniably bad effect of combining drugs with alcohol. In short, critics of testing argue it gives users "a false sense of security".

Since 2013, The Loop – a community support organisation – has run testing in nightclubs and in tents at festivals in the UK (in 2018 these included Bestival, Boomtown and Parklife). But each time they have to spend years gaining the support of event organisers, the local police, public health bodies, and the local authorities. They receive no government funding.

Since 2014, in fact, spending on drug and alcohol treatment services has suffered cuts of £162m (-18 per cent). In that time, deaths have risen by 26 per cent to 3,450 in 2016.

Surely it’s time for government (with hefty contributions from event organisers and club owners) to fund pill testing everywhere young people gather – in city centres, clubs and at festivals. Testing should be a normal part of a party night out.

It was sanctioned by the Dutch government in 1992, and there have been no drug-related deaths at events where drug testing has been available. In Austria, Belgium and Switzerland, Portugal, France and Spain testing is available at music festivals.

In the UK, progress on pill testing has been slow, because it is not seen as part of the government’s policy on drugs, which still – in spite of many police chiefs standing up and saying they have neither the funding or the willpower to enforce the law – is being characterised as a "war".

We have truly lost the war on drugs. Now is the time for a sensible policy shift which reflects modern society. Legalising cannabis and selling it properly graded and subject to tax in government shops seems inevitable.

It is hypocritical to allow such a key service as The Loop to be crowd-funded, when the results of drug misinformation and misuse often have to be dealt with by the hard-pressed NHS.

The Loop say that nine out of 10 people who come to their pill-testing sites have never asked anyone for advice or information about drugs before. If two out of 10 people then chuck away the drugs they have had tested, that’s a result. Educating users about drugs in this way – in an environment that’s not patronising or ring-fenced by authority as it would be in school – can only be a good thing.

Critics say that you can’t replace parenting with pill testing. But most parents are ill-equipped to tackle drug taking or speak from experience and any advice they give would be biased. Young people are always going to experiment – it’s in the DNA of every normal teenager.

Better to have independent neutral experts on hand to help them negotiate their way through this minefield.

Divorce day

The holiday season might be been bad for retailers, but one business is booming – counselling.

Being cooped up in the same space for Christmas and new year can prove fatal for some couples, and clinics which offer relationship advice say that the first week of January sees a surge in bookings.

For some, it’s a chance to start afresh, and call a halt to something you can’t make work – 7 January is the most popular day in the year to file for divorce. After four divorces (which took place at varying dates in the calendar), I have finally reached the perfect solution to seasonal relationship disorder – spend it apart. And not just in separate beds, in different cities, or even in separate countries, but on separate continents, thousands of miles apart.

That gives you enough distance to definitively avoid arguments about how to make gravy, which way to cook a goose or which dreary repeat to watch on New Year’s Eve.

I’ve never had so few disagreements and look forward to resuming normal service in the near future. There’s a lot to be said for drastically reducing unnecessary communication, and that’s going to be my motto for 2019.